ICE order will force local mom to miss son’s 1st day of college by 4 days

By Mary E. O’Leary

Updated
6:08 pm EDT, Monday, July 30, 2018

From left, Anwar Mahmud, Samir Mahmud and Salma Sikandar are hoping the BIA allows Salma’s deportation case to be heard.

From left, Anwar Mahmud, Samir Mahmud and Salma Sikandar are hoping the BIA allows Salma’s deportation case to be heard.

Photo: Mary E. O’Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media

Photo: Mary E. O’Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media

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From left, Anwar Mahmud, Samir Mahmud and Salma Sikandar are hoping the BIA allows Salma’s deportation case to be heard.

From left, Anwar Mahmud, Samir Mahmud and Salma Sikandar are hoping the BIA allows Salma’s deportation case to be heard.

Photo: Mary E. O’Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media

ICE order will force local mom to miss son’s 1st day of college by 4 days

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NEW HAVEN — All their lives, the Bangladeshi couple worked to see their only child become the first in their family to pursue a college education.

They were overjoyed when their son, Samir Mahmud, 17, graduated June 19 from Engineering and Science University Magnet School and was ready to attend Quinnipiac University at the end of August to begin training for a career in software engineering.

Five days later, however, his mother, Salma Sikandar, on a routine visit to the Hartford office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, was told to buy a ticket to Bangladesh to leave by Aug. 23 to return to that country after almost 20 years.

“This is our dream. If his mother goes on the 23rd, he is going to college on August 27. His mother’s lifelong dream was to go with him on the first day of college,” said her husband, Anwar Mahmud, a manager at McDonald’s in North Haven. Five days after she is scheduled to depart, Samir will turn 18.

A resident in the country since 1999, she overstayed her visa, and in 2011, when they came here from New York so their son could attend a better school, she applied to ICE to remain in the U.S.

She appealed for a cancellation of removal due to an exceptional hardship because of her then 11-year-old son’s asthma. This legal avenue is open to undocumented residents here for at least 10 years who have relatives that would suffer sufficiently without them in the U.S.

The family’s immigration attorney, Robert Wang, said the Immigration Court in Hartford ruled it was a “very close case,” but the judge found the hardship was not strong enough.

Wang said they are now asking the Board of Immigration Appeals to reopen the case. He said ICE has the discretion to let Sikandar stay until the appeal is heard.

The attorney said he would not have any fight with ICE if they were deporting someone with a criminal record or with no ties to the U.S. “She has a U.S. citizen child. She has never been arrested and she works,” Wang said.

The attorney said she is also part of her husband’s case. He is seeking to stay his removal order because as a Mormon, his life could be in danger in Bangladesh, where members of a minority religion are persecuted.

Sikandar has lost multiple appeals over the years, but is now waiting for a ruling from the Board of Immigration Appeals. The first request is to issue an emergency stay; the second request is to reopen the case, which her husband said usually takes four to six months.

“We need everybody’s help to give us some time. We followed every single thing they are asking for. We bought the ticket. They already have her passport. We want to follow the law,” Anwar Mahmud said.

His wife’s next check-in with immigration is Tuesday.

“We cannot live without her. We are a close family. We have never been separated. We have always been together,” Anwar Mahmud said. He said the last week has been terrible for them.

Samir Mahmud said they are in a state of despair.

His father said they were elated with the prospect of watching their son go off to college. “We did not have that kind of chance to go to college. They are not only separating families on the border. They are separating them here in Connecticut, here in New Haven.”

He is hoping U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal and U.S. Sen, Chris Murphy Mayor Toni Harp will reach out to help them.

“We don’t have any organized group here. We are a very quiet family, so we don’t know where to go for help,” Anwar Mahmud said. “Our time is going fast.”

“We want to appeal to the judge. If the judge says, ‘OK they have to go,’ that is different. But let’s fight for it,” Anwar Mahmud said.

State Rep. David Yaccarino, R-North Haven, who has offices across from the McDonald’s where Mahmud works, said he knows the family well.

“These are good people,” Yaccarino said. He said they came here to make a life for their family and have done that. The state representative said these are the kind of people we want in America, self-supporting and paying their taxes.

Yaccarino said when he is asked by residents how he can speak up for them because they are undocumented, he said the residents come around after he explains their situation.

Yaccarino said he called ICE and was told if Sikandar’s paperwork is in order, she should get an extension.

ICE was asked last week to comment on Samir Sikander’s status, but did not answer an email.

Anwar Mahmud worked at McDonald’s when they lived in New York before coming to Connecticut. When he first got to this state, he worked at a gas station.

John McKnight, who is the independent operator of the McDonald’s where Anwar Mahmud works, said Mahmud came to him several times seeking a job four years ago.

When he finally hired him, “I realized how many of my customers he knew” from his previous job who were happy to see him again. He said Salma Sikandar “is a woman who would do anything for you.”

“This is a woman who has done nothing. It is really horrible,” McKnight said of their situation.

Anwar Mahmud said he has been in the U.S. for 25 years, his wife for almost 18 years. “All of a sudden, if she has to go, everything will be upside down,” he said.

“If she goes, I don’t know how I am going to stay. She is my mother. Both my parents are my support. ... I want to experience my college life growing up with them, not without them,” Samir Mahmad said.

“We want to be with him. We want to give him guidance as much as we can give to him,” his father said. “We are surviving people. We are not hurting anyone. We go to work, we come back home. We have never spent a night out without each other.”

Samir is upset his mother now has to wear an ankle bracelet. He said ICE knows where they are. They know their history. “We are absolutely clean people,” he said. “She is not a danger. She is just a mom.”

His father said they are not going to flee. “This is our life,” he said. “They know where I work.”

Samir said it makes no sense to have a pending case, but before it can be resolved, his mother will be deported. “It is a waste of resources,” he said as they sat in their modest home in the city.

His father said ultimately he wants his son “to get all that he deserves. We want him to be educated. We want him to be a good human being. Everything the holy book says: Be good to your neighbor. Be good to your family. The simple principle things we are teaching him.”

Anwar Mahmad said they have no plan if his wife is deported.

Samir, who was on the student council at ESMUS, said his family taught him to fight for what he thought was right. He said he will minor in political science at Quinnipiac since he sees what his parents are going through.

“My parents always put me first. That is why I don’t want to live without them,” Samir Mahmad said.